UK adds $20M to HPC pot for physics and astronomy computation

Yesterday the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) announced that they had received £12.32 million (about 20.5M USD) from the UK’s Large Facilities Capital Fund to support new HPC aimed at helping particle physicists and astronomers. And they got Stephen Hawking in the release

Professor Stephen Hawking, principal investigator of the COSMOS consortium, welcomed the news and said, “This is an exciting time in astronomy, particle physics and cosmology with the UK heavily involved in world-leading terrestrial and space-based experiments. These STFC supercomputer funds will ensure that calculations from our theories keep pace and are tested against the observations now flooding in. I am confident these resources will help UK scientists answer some of the biggest questions about our Universe.”

Stephen Hawking, baby! (For those keeping count, my personal Hawking Post Count now stands at two for October.) The release is choc-full of great quotes on the value of HPC for science like this one

Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), said, “This new investment will ensure that UK researchers can continue using novel computing solutions to enable cutting-edge research in astronomy, cosmology and particle physics and, at the same time, contribute to long-term economic recovery through training young scientists in the most powerful computing techniques of the 21st century. HPC is an invaluable tool for our science community and is helping us advance in many fields of science.”

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